First things first: This guide is a light sorceress guide, mostly PvM and MFâ€™ing. Since I donâ€™t do much PvP, not much will be included. I decided to make this guide because I realized how unpopular they were compared to the others. Iâ€™ve heard people say: â€œLol! A light sorc!â€ and â€œWhat a newb! Light sorcs are pitiful.â€ I guess theyâ€™ve never been wasted by raw electrical damage, have they? :lol: Also, this build does not include Energy Shield, although, you can put a point in it if you want, but it is not highly recommended.

-------Advantages of the Light Sorc------

-TONS of damage can be dealt with lightning
-Thereâ€™s a move for different situations (i.e. chain for groups, light for one-on-one)
-Static field can be effective when killing bosses
-Decent ones arenâ€™t too expensive to build

-------Disadvantages of the Light Sorc------

-Very low minimum damage (weâ€™re talking 5 or 6)
-High mana costs
-One element only
-If you want to make a godly one, they can get very expensive

Charged Bolt- level 1 skill- 20 points
This is a synergy for both chain lightning and lightning, so investment is required. Without this maxed your lightning skills will do pitiful damage. It can also be fun to use at times. :lol:

Lightning- level 12 skill- 20 points
This is your main PvP and MFâ€™ing move. When fighting bosses and the such, this is the move to use because it can deal massive damage (good ones can do 30k). In PvP, since youâ€™re usually targeting only one person, that makes this move good to use as well.

Chain Lightning- level 18 skill- 20 points
This is your main PvM move. Once at a high level, it can do around 12k damage and can bounce off many targets. Itâ€™s great for groups since it can hit more than 10 enemies at the same time, and still do amazing damage.

Lightning Mastery- level 30 skill- 20 points
This is obviously required. It pumps up the lightning damage all lightning moves will do, therefore essential for this build. Without this skill maxed, your lightning moves will do even more pitiful damage.

Static Field- level 6 skill- 1 point
One point here is enough. The factor that varies when you place more points into this skill is the range so one will work enough. Teleport next to the boss, static a couple of times, teleport away should drain enough hp for you to take him down easy. Let the skills do the rest if you really need longer range.

Nova- level 12 skill- 1-20 points
Here is where the rest of your skill points go after you have put points in everywhere else. One point is enough for a prerequisite until you are done with everything else. Pour points in here as a synergy to produce maximum lightning damage.

Thunderstorm- level 24 skill- 1 point
This move is essential. 1 little point in it, and boosts from your skills will bring it up to about 1000 damage. Just for one little point, whatâ€™s not to like?

Telekinesis- level 6 skill- 1 point
Itâ€™s a prerequisite for teleport. Its not very useful, so one point in here is enough.

Teleport- level 18 skill- 1 point
This is essential for all sorceresses. Teleporting is what makes the sorceress a very useful character. Sorceresses are need when doing runs and MFâ€™ing as well; unless they have enigma, of course. :thumbsup:

Energy Shield- level 24 skill- 0 or 1 point
I hear many people say this is a good shield for MFâ€™ing. I disagree since without it I can mf good enough, and its just another skill point wasted. If you really want to use it, go ahead, but in my opinion, one point is enough.

Stat Point Distribution

Strength- As much as you need to wear your equipment. Its just my habit of putting 100 points in here.

Dexterity- If you want to go for max block, go ahead. IMO, I would have around 40 points here in case you want to use Call to Arms or other runewords.

Vitality- X, where x= everything else (lol, math)

Energy- This is the tricky part for me. If you want to be an MFâ€™er, your going to have to put lots of points in here. Because, many items like Chance guards, could be replaced by frostburns if you donâ€™t have enough mana. But because you want as much mf as possible, these items will not be available. I usually put 75+ energy because, personally, I donâ€™t want to wear frostburns lol. IMO, nothing here wouldnâ€™t work for this build, because the spells cost quite a bit of mana to cast.

Equipment
-Here we go. There are many different choices for your equipment depending on what type of light sorc you want to be. Remember, PvP, PvM, or MFâ€™ing.

WEAPON
Best choice IMO: Eschutaâ€™s Temper Eldritch Orb (PvP, PvM)
-If you can afford a perfect lightning one, thatâ€™s the way to go. They arenâ€™t too expensive as far as I know. If you canâ€™t get a +3, go with the next choice. Even if itâ€™s a +3/+15 itâ€™ll work.

Alternatives: The Oculus Swirling Crystal (PvP, PvM, MFâ€™ing)
-If you cannot afford a +3 eschutaâ€™s, an oculus will work as well. 20 resist all, 30 fcr, 20 energy, 20 vitality, 3 to sorceress skills, itâ€™s a decent orb that will definitely work if you cannot find or afford the +3 eschutaâ€™s. The only disadvantage on this is the chance to teleport. Although it is sometimes helpful, many times it has teleported me into mobs of enemies.

Tal Rashaâ€™s Lidless Eye Swirling Crystal (PvM, MFâ€™ing)
-IMO, only use this orb if you plan to use other Tal items. By itself, its not really a useful orb, but when combined with the rest of the Tal set, it can be quite useful because it adds to your skill damage. It isnâ€™t really worth much, so even the poorest people can pick up one easy.

ARMOR
Best choice IMO: Chains of Honor (PvP, PvM)
-I think Chains of Honor is good here if you canâ€™t get enough resistance, but even with high resistance, the plus to skills is pretty good as well. They are pretty expensive to buy, I would recommend a dusk shroud because of its lower strength requirement and because its lighter.

Alternatives: Ormus Robes Dusk Shroud (PvP)
-These will work well because it gives + to your skill damage and they have 20 fcr with regenerate mana. Besides those mods, there really isnâ€™t that much more about this armor. It lacks resistances and defense, but some people use this armor to get max damage possible on their moves. Sticking an um, resistance jewel, or lightning facet will help a lot.

Tal Armour (MFâ€™ing)
-First of all, it has a pretty high defense, good ones can get around 900 defense. This armour, IMO is best for MFâ€™ing because not only does it give 88 mf, but also contributes to the partial set bonus that you get from 3 tal items (65 mf)

HELM
Best choice IMO: Griffonâ€™s Eye Diadem. (PvP, PvM)
-This is easily my choice for the lightning sorceress. It gives 1 to skills (not so great), 25 fcr, and can add 10-15% to your light skill damage, and decreases your opponents lightning resistance by 15-20%. The only problem with this is the expensiveness of this item. While a low one may cost a couple of ists, a perfect one can easily cost ten+. If you can afford it, this is the choice.

Alternatives: Harlequin Crest Shako (PvP, PvM, MFâ€™ing)
-It gives a juicy 2 to skills, 50 mf, and sweet life and mana (good for the sorceress). Itâ€™s pretty cheap to buy, on nL it costs around a lem. On Ladder a lower one costs about a lem as well, but higher ones can cost pul. Perfects might even go for higher. Its also pretty common to find, I doubt anyone will have a hard time getting one. Socketing it with an um can help stack up resist, sticking a perfect topaz in it will help with mf and a 5/5 light facet will help with PvP and PvM. An overall good helm for the sorceress.

Tal Helm (PvM, MFâ€™ing)
-Although I strongly believe that Shako and Griffonâ€™s Eye are the best for this build, a tal helm might work as well. But, donâ€™t use it alone as with any other tal item. With three tal pieces, you can get 65 mf, which will help quite a bit when mfing. Again, donâ€™t use this alone. I donâ€™t recommend this helm, but it goes for pgems or maybe even less.

Rare Circlet with +skills / fcr / resistance / mana or life (PvP, PvM)
-These can be obtained when gambling, although pretty hard to find. I donâ€™t recommend trying to buy one unless you can afford it, because exceptional ones can get extremely expensive. Some of these can work better than the other choices up there.

SHIELD
Best choice IMO: Spirit Monarch (PvP, PvM)
-This shield is unbelievable. It is the only +2 to skills shield in the game, it has 25-35 fcr, around 100 to mana, and has some resists as well (35 to three elements). The only downside to this shield is it requires lots of strength, so if you are not up to putting more points in strength, donâ€™t try getting this shield for your sorceress.

Alternatives: Lidless Wall Grim Shield (PvP, PvM)
-This a good, all around sorceress or any caster shield. It has 1 to skills, 20 fcr, and some to mana and increasing your maximum mana. But, in order for this to be successful, you will indeed have to stick a perfect diamond or resist jewels into this shield because it lacks resistance. Besides that, itâ€™s a good shield, and can be bought for very little.

Moserâ€™s Blessed Circle Round Shield (PvP, PvM)
-If you are lacking resistance, this is definitely the shield for you. Alone, it has 25 resist all, and 2 sockets. If you need more resistance then what it already gives you, stick 1 or 2 more perfect diamonds into it. If you only need one, the other socket you can a put a facet or other useful jewel or rune in it. It can be bought for 2-5 pgems, so it is also good for poorer players.

Alternatives for Weapon Switch: Ali Baba Tulwar (MFâ€™ing)
-Ali Baba also gives a bonus to mf, but based on your character level. It is also useful if you want to gold find because it gives bonuses to gf as well, also based on character level.

A Rare Orb with Frozen/Shiver/Chilling Armor (PvP, PvM)
-If you donâ€™t want to put points into the cold armors, getting an orb with them can always be helpful on the weapon switch. Before a duel, boss or monster battle, casting an armor will always help.

Alternatives for Shield Switch: Splendor Runeword Bone/Grim Shield (MFâ€™ing)
- This shield also has mf like the rhyme does, but it lacks resistance. But, what it does have is 1 to skills (to boost your damage a little), add to mana and regenerate mana, and fcr. If your resistance isnâ€™t too bad on the weapon switch, this might work better than rhyme.

GLOVES
Best choice IMO: Magefist Light Gauntlets (PvP, PvM)
-Its all about fcr on the magefists. 1 to fire skills doesnâ€™t help much, but the regenerate mana and 20 fcr makes it the perfect gloves for a caster.

Alternatives: Trang Gloves (PvP, PvM)
-It might sound weird using the gloves of a necromancer set on the sorceress, BUT, similar to the magefists, these gloves have 20 fcr as well. It also has 30 cold resistance, but the reason why magefists are the better choice here is because they have regenerate mana. These are used solely for the 20 fcr on the sorceress, and they go for only pgems each.

Chance Guards (MFâ€™ing)
-If you are looking for big mf, these are definitely the gloves for you. While not useful for many other purposes, chance guards are the perfect mf gloves with 25-40 mf and also 200 extra gold in case you want to gamble.

Frostburns
-While these arenâ€™t useful except for expanding your mana pool, many people who play sorceresses donâ€™t like to put a lot of points in mana. If youâ€™re that kind of person, these are what you need. Expanding your mana pool by 40% will help quite a bit, wonâ€™t it?

BELT
Best choice IMO: Arachnid Mesh Spiderweb Sash (PvP, PvM)
-They are beautiful caster belts. With 1 to skills, 20 fcr, and maximum mana 5%, this is the perfect choice for the lightning sorceress. There are two problems with this belt, however, one- the required level is 80 (ouch!) and the prices can be very high when it comes to a perfect spider. On Ladder, a perfect spider can go for ist, and on nonladder, even a low one can cost up to a hi rune.

Alternatives: Tal Belt (MFâ€™ing)
-This is a pretty nice choice as well. 10-15 mf with some mana and dexterity. This is a good mf belt, and easily contributes to the partial tal set bonus of 65 mf. Also, if you have 3 tal items, you get a bonus of 10 fcr on this belt.

Goldwrap Belt (MFâ€™ing)
-Here we go, Goldwrap. Many people up these to get higher defense on them so they can use them for mfing. 30% mf on a belt is the highest you can get and with 50-80 extra gold they can be useful for gold finding as well.

BOOTS
Best choice IMO: War Travelers (MFâ€™ing, PvP, PvM)
-30-50 mf on boots is what makes these ideal mf boots. Also with 25% frw and 40% slower stamina drain, you can walk for a long time. 10 strength and 10 vitality will help a lot as well. These boots are unbeatable in this category.

Alternatives: Natalyaâ€™s Boots or rare boots with resist
-The thing that makes these viable to use is their resist, frw, and heal stamina. If resists are important to you, these are awesome boots to use. Also, finding a pair of rare boots with resist can also be a good choice. Nats boots are pretty common to find, but if you want to buy one, they go for pretty cheap as well.

Sandstorm Trek Scarabshell Boots
-These have got nice strength and vitality and also some sweet poison resist. From my experiences, poison resistance has been a problem with my characters so this, IMO will work well. But, its strength requirement is kinda high (91) so you might want to try to get some strength bonuses from your equipment.

RINGS
Best choice IMO: SOJâ€™s
-While these can get expensive, they are the perfect rings on almost any caster. Youâ€™ll love the mana bonuses and the 1 to skills is beautiful. If you can afford these, there is no replacement.

Alternatives: Rare rings with fcr/ resist
-Fcr is always nice on rings if you need them, and if you lack resist rings can get around 15 resist all as well. These are going to be pretty hard to find if you are looking for 10+ resist all, but if you are looking for fcr only, they can get pretty common.

CHARMS
10 Lightning GCâ€™s w/ life mods
-Ok, these can get extremely expensive, but go for it if you can afford it. Plain ones arenâ€™t too bad, on nL they go for about a hi each, and on ladder they go about um each. Not too bad, right?

Annihlus
-If you can indeed get one, these are amazing for ANY character. Experience, resist, and one to skills are all very nice on a small charm. Good luck hunting dclone. :lol:

MF/ Life/ Resist all SCâ€™s
-Obviously, for mfers you need mf scâ€™s. 7 is the highest on one, so you can place around 10 under your lightning gcs. Life and resist all scâ€™s can be very helpful too if you are lacking in those areas.

Gheedâ€™s Fortune GC
-Again, this is for mfâ€™ers who still have room in their inventory =p. 20-40 mf on a gc with 40-80 gold find can be very helpful when you need them, or if you have room.

PvM and MFâ€™ing STRATEGY
Here are some strategies that I personally use. Because I donâ€™t PvP a lot, sorry that there isnâ€™t going to be any in this section.

PvM
Obviously, for large groups of enemies, youâ€™re going to want to use chain lightning because of its mass damage and range. It is able to bounce off many targets when you have it maxed along with synergies and skills, and is the perfect skill to use when are surrounded by a huge pack of monsters. For the smaller packs, I prefer to spam lightning since you donâ€™t need to deal damage to tons of people. Since it does more damage and there are less people to hit, lightning is, IMO better for smaller packs.

Hotkeys: F1: Tome of TP F2: If you have it, frozen or other cold armor; if not, lightning is best here F3: Chain Lightning F4: Teleport F5-F7: If you have CTA or the sort, BO and the rest will go there.

Normal Left Click: Chain, or Lightning
Normal Right Click: Teleport

IMO, this are the hotkeys for PvM because: First of all, Tome of TP is always F1 in case of an emergency. F2 is frozen armor or lightning because, before you go PvMâ€™ing, youâ€™re going to want to cast your cold armor. If you donâ€™t have an armor, stick with lightning there in case you have chain on your left click, and you need lightning to take down a unique or champion monster. If youâ€™ve got an armor, lightning wonâ€™t have to have a hotkey. F3 is chain for the same reason as lightning, if you need to take down a large group. F4 is Teleport. Easy access and when you need to run quickly, teleport is right there for you.

MFâ€™ing
This is what I usually do when mfâ€™ing. I teleport next to the boss (Mephisto for example), static him a couple of times, and when heâ€™s down to about half way, teleport away and spam lightning at him until heâ€™s dead. Good Job! I would use this for the bosses with higher hit points since you canâ€™t kill them as easily. Everything from Hell Andariel and lower doesnâ€™t need staticing. Hell Andy should be easy enough to take down with lightning alone.

From my experience, sorceresses have extremely low life compared to the others, so when fighting a boss, teleport needs to be ready in case you need to escape from an attack. F1, again is town portal for emergency situations. F2, again is the armor, or chain lightning in case there is a group of enemies around the boss. F3, is chain lightning if you have a cold armor. F4 is teleport, again, to escape from enemies. Most importantly, F5 is Static Field, which essential for MFâ€™ing if you want extremely fast killing speed. You need this handy so you donâ€™t need to go searching your skill list for it when you need to take down a boss.

Thanks for taking a look at my first guide! Hope you liked it! Letâ€™s increase the light sorc population out thereâ€¦

Energy- This is the tricky part for me. If you want to be an MFâ€™er, your going to have to put lots of points in here. Because, many items like Chance guards, could be replaced by frostburns if you donâ€™t have enough mana. But because you want as much mf as possible, these items will not be available. I usually put 75+ energy because, personally, I donâ€™t want to wear frostburns lol. IMO, nothing here wouldnâ€™t work for this build, because the spells cost quite a bit of mana to cast.

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I agree with this, I ve seen other guides saying no points in energy and let ur end game gear provide the mana, but that leaves you totally item dependant, and its not just item dependant its "only certain items dependant", that is those that improve your mana by a %, so no room for customization, and if you dont get those early your game is going to be a bit frustrating and boring with so low mana.

Also I use ES without synergy and only 1 point in it not maxed (just +skills), only the prerequisite point in telekinessis, with my natural big mana pool +some mana from items I can take several hits before my life starts going down, and I regen mana so fast it takes less than a second till I have at least those few points that allow me to tele away from danger. PvM I don t duel.

But my sorc is not pure lightining I made her lightining/cold with orb as back up for inmunes.

oh wow, a ****ing cookie cutter build that half the sorcs on bnet do gets a sticky, but mine doesn't? k **** you too, I just won't post any information anymore. Everyone just ignores me anyway, whether or not I own their whole acct with every one of my chars ;[.

oh wow, a ****ing cookie cutter build that half the sorcs on bnet do gets a sticky, but mine doesn't? k **** you too, I just won't post any information anymore. Everyone just ignores me anyway, whether or not I own their whole acct with every one of my chars ;[.

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dude, it isn't the build that deserves the sticky, its the guide
so even if you have some awesome build, but write a crap guide, its not going to help

not saying your guide is crap, but I've never read it b4 so I don't know

and also, if you even read my guide, I said that there aren't many light sorcs out there, if you f'in play the game you'll realize that
not even close to half the sorcs out there are light, actually a half are blizz/orb and a third are fb's only like a sixth or so are lightning

Depends on what you play. I play pvp and see all 3 elements, all doing about equally successfully. If you do pvm, all you ever see is your sorc unless you're running baal, in which case you can see a lot of crap. Generally fire and lit use the same gear (eschuta's/spirit/coh/mara's or rare/sojs/arach/magefists/treks or silks/grif or shako or rare) and cold uses different gear because of how the mastry works. The only originality you can get from a single elem sorc is if you use stuff like inferno, or if you max inferno to max out meteor's ground fire damage. Even then the gear is standard.

Depends on what you play. I play pvp and see all 3 elements, all doing about equally successfully. If you do pvm, all you ever see is your sorc unless you're running baal, in which case you can see a lot of crap. Generally fire and lit use the same gear (eschuta's/spirit/coh/mara's or rare/sojs/arach/magefists/treks or silks/grif or shako or rare) and cold uses different gear because of how the mastry works. The only originality you can get from a single elem sorc is if you use stuff like inferno, or if you max inferno to max out meteor's ground fire damage. Even then the gear is standard.

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Did I say I was going for originality?
A good guide doesn't have to have a unique build.

oh wow, a ****ing cookie cutter build that half the sorcs on bnet do gets a sticky, but mine doesn't? k **** you too, I just won't post any information anymore. Everyone just ignores me anyway, whether or not I own their whole acct with every one of my chars ;[.

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Reasons why guides get stickied and why not depend on lots of things. Should you have any questions, please PM me directly!